The use of telephones has grown exponentially over recent years. Subscribers are utilizing wireless telephones, wireline telephones, facsimile machines, personal computers, and pagers, among other devices, to place telephone voice and/or data calls. As a result of these telephone calls, telecommunications networks process billions of subscriber transactions. The telecommunications companies have to correlate these transactions to a subscriber's telephone service calling plan such that the subscriber can be properly billed. In some instances, billing errors occur, and the telecommunications companies are unable to automatically process the transaction and/or generate a bill to the subscriber. Many billing errors can occur in a month, and the voluminous quantity of errors requires investigation by personnel responsible for resolving billing errors. Quickly resolving billing errors increases the likelihood of the telecommunications company receiving payment for the transaction.
Often, the investigation involves escalating the problem until resolution. Typically, escalating a problem requires personnel to place numerous contacts to individuals and organizations, and accessing several systems to resolve the billing errors. The escalation may take place over several hours, days, weeks or months. During the escalation process, personnel need to keep track of the progress of the resolution of the billing error. Currently, tracking escalation involves utilizing manual processes, such as preparing handwritten notes, rudimentary spreadsheets, or making mental notes of the status of the billing error. Typically, personnel involved in these functions are organized in billing centers and handle many billing errors per month. Managing the escalation process including supervising personnel and tracking the progress of a large volume of billing errors quickly becomes unmanageable when the escalation process involves utilizing manual processes created by each worker.
Thus, a heretofore-unaddressed need exists for a solution that addresses the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.